What is the Free Software Foundation?

The Free Software Foundation is dedicated to eliminating restrictions
on copying, redistribution, understanding and modification of software.

The word "free" in our name does not refer to price; it refers to
freedom. First, the freedom to copy a program and redistribute it to
your neighbors, so that they can use it as well as you. Second, the
freedom to change a program, so that you can control it instead of it
controlling you; for this, the source code must be made available to
you.

The Foundation works to give you these freedoms by developing free
compatible replacements for proprietary software. Specifically, we
are putting together a complete, integrated software system "GNU" that
is upward-compatible with Unix. When it is released, everyone will be
permitted to copy it and distribute it to others; in addition, it will
be distributed with source code, so you will be able to learn about
operating systems by reading it, to port it to your own machine, to
improve it, and to exchange the changes with others.

There are already organizations that distribute free CP/M and MS-DOS
software. The Free Software Foundation is doing something different.

The other organizations exist primarily for distribution; they
distribute whatever happens to be available. We hope to provide a
complete integrated free system that will eliminate the need for any
proprietary software.

One consequence is that we are now interested only in software
that fits well into the context of the GNU system. Distributing
free MSDOS or Macintosh software is a useful activity, but it is
not part of our game plan.

Another consequence is that we will actively attempt to improve and
extend the software we distribute, as fast as our manpower permits.
For this reason, we will always be seeking donations of money,
computer equipment or time, labor, and source code to improve the GNU
system.

In fact, our primary purpose is this software development effort;
distribution is just an adjunct which also brings in some money. We
think that the users will do most of the distribution on their own,
without needing or wanting our help.

Why a Unix-Like System?

It is necessary to be compatible with some widely used system to give
our system an immediate base of trained users who could switch to it
easily and an immediate base of application software that can run on
it. (Eventually we will provide free replacements for proprietary
application software as well, but that is some years in the future.)

We chose Unix because it is a fairly clean design which is already
known to be portable, yet whose popularity is still rising. The
disadvantages of Unix seem to be things we can fix without removing
what is good in Unix.

Why not imitate MS-DOS or CP/M? They are more widely used, true, but
they are also very weak systems, designed for tiny machines. Unix is
much more powerful and interesting. When a system takes years to
implement, it is important to write it for the machines that will
become available in the future; not to let it be limited by the
capabilities of the machines that are in widest use at the moment but
will be obsolete when the new system is finished.

Why not aim for a new, more advanced system, such as a Lisp Machine?
Mainly because that is still more of a research effort; there is a
sizable chance that the wrong choices will be made and the system
will turn out not very good. In addition, such systems are often tied
to special hardware. Being tied to one manufacturer's machine would
make it hard to remain independent of that manufacturer and get broad
community support.